View source for Mamba 15 ch05 Hits and Flops alt1

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  hits &amp; flops
  ------------

  yep, guys ! besides the usual stuff
  we got something new to keep your
  attention !

  we are going to set up charts by
  counting the first-releases on
  certain boards in the usa, and we
  won't say we weren't inspirated by
  former us-magazines like chaos
  chronicle and elite euphoria !

  you'll see the first charts made up
  in this way from the mext issue on !

  here are already some rules and
  explanations...

  * the boards taken into consideration
    are the forum(random/ils/dom)
    2nd to none (nec/legend) and
    warez castle (ikari + talent)

  * the first 100% working version
    counts.

  * if there is more than one version
    spread over these 3 boards, the
    2:1 majority counts.
    but, however, if a game is only on
    one board, and it is levelpacked

    on the contrary to the version(s)
    on the other 2 boards, the level-
    packed version dominates.

  * if one of the listed board's is
    down, it will be not taken into
    consideration, if there's a release
    in that time.

  * subject to alteration

  * grab the next issue for the first
    charts this way




  ok, and here's the usual stuff...


  first here comes a list of the
  latest releases,which will be dropped
  from the next issue on.

  further, have a look at these game
  reviews :

  sarakon      /starbyte
  exterminator /audiogenic
  dino wars    /magic bytes




  lettrix            legend/nei
  * think about it...by software 2000

  scumm              action/nei
  * ole, game on

  total recall       legend/nei i+t/tsm
  * another typical ocean-release

  crime time         genesis/exodus
  * excellent starbyte production

  st dragon          censor/exodus
  * the sales curve's new label : storm



  kickbox vigilante      i+t/tsm
  * nice release by zeppelin games

  chase hq ii;sci        legend/nei
  * by ocean, on cartridge

  shadow of the beast    legend/nei
  * average game, releases by ocean/
    psygnosis also only on cartridge

  dick tracy             censor/kfi
  * by walt disney

  arcade trivia quiz     i+t/tsm
  * the first multi-loader by zeppelin
    games ???

  titbit              legend/nei
  * released by double density

  dino wars           paramount/destiny
  * oh boy, look at the review

  exterminator        action/nei
  * audiogenic against vermin

  western contest     legend/nei
  * also coming from golden disc, 2d

  dragon strike       random
  * nice game by ssi/ea



  top cat/beverky hills   i+t/tsm
  * another hi-tec comic-game

  robocop ii              legend/nei
  * ...and another ocean-cartridge

  3d-soccer               ics/substance
  * decent soccer-game by simulmondo

  line of fire            genesis/rnd
  * a low-quality us-gold/sega product

  welltris                crazy/tsm
  * ...riots in sight...by infogrames



  labyrinth              action/nei
  *budget by blue stone/software agency

  never ending story ii  action/nei
  * nice game, by linel software

  bill &amp; ted's...        nec
  * capstone software

  ash &amp; dave's...darts   i+t/tsm
  * a budget by codemasters

  twinworld              extasy/random
  * cool release by ubi soft



  ultima vi, the false prophets   nec
  * finally released, by origin systems

  tough guys             action/nei
  * a game by cp-verlag

  also worth mentioning are those
  previews...

  lotus esprit turbo challange by
  gremlin (ils)
  robocop ii by ocean (ils)
  chips by us-gold (i+t/tsm)

  also released the hit-game creatures
  by thalamus !!!

           sarakon - starbyte

  your task is to find two identical
  signs out of a field of many
  different signs. but the two ident-
  ical items must be placed in a direct
  junction.
  you have to solve 35 levels, the
  structure of the levels change aswell
  as the time-limit.
  many programm-technical titbits,
  good graphics and a good tune make
  the game very attractive, especially
  for 'thinker'.
  not to forget the intro with some
  nice pictures...    valuation : 87%

        exterminator - audiogenic

  a weird game, you are kind of a
  vermin-killer, you have to clean
  rooms by steering a big hand, which
  just bruises the vermin...
  you also can crush the vermin by
  hitting your fist on the floor !
  it's possible to perish by being
  shot by the vermin, tanks (?) etc.
  although the fun of playing vanishes
  very fast, the game makes a lot of
  fun for some time, because of the
  awesome graphics and the original
  game-play and built-in jokes...
                        valuation : 80%

         dino wars - magic bytes

  honestly, i still don't know how to
  play this game, i guess nobody can
  avoid to reset after a few minutes.

  only the programming and graphics of
  the game is enough, even if there
  would be a good gameplay.
  the graphics are part digitized, part
  lousy painted. the coding is half in
  basic, half mc. the game is half in
  german, half in english. the game
  bugs like hell...baaaaaaaaaah

                        valuation : .2%
            the demo reviews
           ------------------
  uohh, a lot of demos came out this
  month. i'm wondering why people give
  us such a flood of demos in january
  and in the end of the year (90)?!
  anyway i reviewed some (lot) of them
  and tried to give you a fair survey.
  the points below of each review is
  of coz no voted result of the crowd
  but our personal point of view. so
  if you disagree with our decision of
  giving points, write your anger to:

              mamba staff&lt;
             XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
             XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  the best demo since issue 14 of mamba
  is the demo 'graphixmania 2' by mda.
  the swiss trio managed to code a
  piece of art which shouldn't miss in
  your collection!
  here's a short survey of what we saw:
  intro: the metro goldwin meyer lion
  was digitized in color and voice
  modified for the mda-label for their
  very own introduction, nice idea but
  once produced by the voice before...
  part one: broken on our disc, sorry,
  but please send again...
  part two: a nice vector-scroll with
  joy-control, an mda logo jumping on
  an other logo. nice scroll effect in
  the bottom and cool music by joe.
  part three: nice joystick-part. you
  can toggle your stick and arrange to
  puke the shit out of the animated
  crap-head the puke of which begins to
  build a pyramid of letters. by
  pressing the button the pyramid gets
  shot down till it's end and you can
  puke again, yuk!
  down under a double-spinning scroller
  spinning around of each other.
  part four: the bobs part. coolest
  bob routine i ever saw so far. ugly
  background scroller and the logo is
  not the best. the bobs are able to be
  modified by joystick. the music in
  this part is phobia like...

  part five: last part is the best
  concerning the name of the demo at
  least! you can see two cool painted
  girls half naked (lechz!) at the
  beach tonight..?.?!?!
  to the left you see the mda freak's
  heads, look like digitized, fully
  animated and can act every funny
  scene. to their speaking the coolest
  music sampled by the soundwizard tim,
  amazing!!!!

  coding :91%         quantity:75%
  graphix:81%         ideas   :95%
  music  :78%         ------------
  design :67%         total   :81%

  'armagedon 2' by x-factor is a sur-
  prise! the crew (better said skyhawk)
  managed to invent some new routines!
  started with the intro nothing
  special happens but in the second
  part already skyhawk coded a zoom-
  effect over a landscape. the letters
  tell a story which takes a while,
  but nice part.
  the second part was coded by dexter,
  urgh..., he frightens you to make
  more parts in future (hahaha just
  kidding, but try to improve...)
  anyway, third part, 180 bobs by
  skyhawk-suddenly turning to a bob-
  scroller surrounding changing letters
  which of coz say: x-factor...
  in the following part skyhawk even
  propered up his bob-routine by coding
  a scroller with various effects -
  never seen before, cool!
  in case you can't read what the
  scroll is doing you can read a little
  scroll at the bottom which shows the
  same text. up to 205 bobs in this
  routine are possible and the number
  of the current bobs is shown...
  the end-part includes a fine starrou-
  tine but just changes some textpages.

  coding :78%        quantity:75%
  graphix:45%        ideas   :75%
  music  :68%        ------------
  design :80%        total   :70%
  spirited by spirit is a hit! i never
  heard of this group but i must say
  it's a pity their programmer likes
  the amiga rather more than the 64,
  at least he says so in a scroller...
  anyway the intro is nothing special
  but the second part shows a nice idea
  you see an amazing good animated
  waterfall and after some time it
  turns out to be a scroller. the
  scroller above shows some nice extra
  signs which were invented to inform
  the idiots about the important
  credits and some more crap...
  every part decrunches with music!?!?!
  what the fuck this should be good for
  as the irq-loader looks the same!
  the following part is no history in
  coding but ideas! a vulcan explodes
  and it's lava produces a logo to the
  bottom. a helicopter flying over this
  logo is animated with bobs-similar-
  sprites. a huge scroller above the
  screen has two planets flying over
  it which are animated like origo did
  once with a big one...
  the last part is nothing special ex-
  cept for the nice dycp-effect...

  coding :45%      quantity:45%
  graphix:60%      ideas   :90%
  music  :45%      ------------
  design :78%      total   :59%

  violator by genesis*project is
  nothing special at all. no special
  routines are shown even the code was
  seen in any demo... but the program-
  mer (scrap) explained he coded all
  for the first time. although the
  graphics are average the logos are
  quite nice. pictures seem to be
  difficult as 'elvira, mistress of the
  dark' looks like miss pigi. the music
  by deek is of coz coool! the demo is
  more or less a graphix show....

  coding :45%       quantity:55%
  graphix:68%       ideas   :30%
  music  :83%       ------------
  design :56%       total   :56%
  'trust your eyes' by genesis project
  and crest is an almost complete dis-
  appointment. in comparrison to
  vision's coding in '2 years crest'
  he is no more to identify... it seems
  he just had some old parts and wanted
  them to release. that would be the
  only excuse you should hunt for this
  demo if you are a fan of crest or
  genesis. there was really no new
  routine,or even better made one,ex-
  cept for fgth's vectorgraphics!!!

  coding :73%      quantity:75%
  graphix:61%      ideas   :50%
  music  :54%      ------------
  design :70%      total   :64%
  'wiz up &amp; urp - which sounds like yup
  &amp; burp - by shape (what?!), yes, they
  joined shape, but they just wanted to
  have red wiz's wot-graphix to have
  released! and they were right to do,
  coz the pixelart is quite a nice one.
  the coding is not the best but as
  said before they just wanted to give
  the shit out! the animations they
  made with the wot-logo are amazing,
  so we gave:

  coding :50%      quantity:75%
  graphix:85%      ideas   :40%
  music  :75%      ------------
  design :69%      total   :66%

  some more demos to be mentioned here
  but for which we had no time to watch
  them all and even upfront's and
  triangle's pieces we haven't seen.
  bonzai's demo with 15 parts should
  have been not that good, but if some-
  one want's to have those demos re-
  viewed in here, send 'em!!!
  others were:
  sensorical/sence, brutal 3/light,
  i love saddam h./house, hitsquad 7/
  shadows, wrecked/hoaxers, and more...

  phhhfffhh...
  i might have forgotten a lot but the
  ammount of these demos was too much
  for this issue, so send 'em!!!   gta
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